The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-05-26
A Gigantic Idol.

Buddha seems temple built for fun
nm enormous joke to amusc the faithful.
This "Great Buddha" has only head
and shoulders, at least ninety-five feet
high; he seems to be rising from tho
depths of the earth, with his neck
stretching up like someone making
painful effort to struggle out of tho
ground. He alone fills all his temple
and his curling hair touches its roof.
One reaches him, just as all the gods
arc reached, by series of stairways,
porticocs and courts. From the gate
of the sanctuary ono cannot very we'll
explain to oneself at the first glance what
is that hillock Of gold, that shapeless
mass in front (the shoulders of Buddha).
1t is only aftcrward, when you look up
very high, that you see far above you
the colossal gilded face, the hugo fixed
eyes gazing down upon you from the
height of ninety feet with idiotic placid
ity.
find myself, says writer in French
paper, making this pilgrimage at the
same Tins as a good-natured Nippon
family of country people who have come
to the holy city for the first time; and
the good folks, especially the ladies,
cannot get over the idea of seeing SO
big god, and there are cries of "Ahp
and "Oh!"-exclamations of surprise
little screams aud little laughs. Now,
really! this Buddha is just too funny,
with his stork-like neck and his stupid
air-funny as any of those snow men
which urchins make at the corners of the
streets-funny as some enormous creature
made to order by little children.
And there the little country family
are all laughing light under the gods
nose-laughing till the tears roll down
their cheeks and the other visitors, and
even the guardian bronzes themselves,
also laugh to see them laugh. Then
they all look at me to see how I feel
about it, and I have to laugh, too
can't possibly help it. What country
this Japan, where everything is oddity
and contrastl Who could ever imagine
that this frivolous little temple, with its
reverenccs and its eternal laugh, could
have lived through centuries locked up in
such ferocious mystery and have given
birth to those thousands of other tenn
Piles, with their monsters and their hob
goblinsl
By the payment of two cents one is
privileged to make the round of the
great Buddha- asccnds by a series of
sloping plank galleries, placed at very
steep angle, on which you can pass be-
hind the head of the colossus, little
above the nape of tho neck. advance
upon it, still accompanied by the voyag-
ing family; the sloping way is slippery,
old, broken through here and there,
worm. catcn- tho ladies very nearly fall.
l put out my hand to help them, and
then we become good friends right away.
Behind the enotmou, head, in dark
nook, an oil bronze is squatting down.
For one cent he shows US suit of armor
and war mask which once belonged
to the great Taiko-Sama, and then
he throws open for our benefit sundry
very ancient idol closets, in which
animal. headed divinitics are conserved
with various relics of weird aspect.
There we do not laugh any more.
In the court of this temple is the most
monstrous of all the bells of Kioto-at
least seven, or perhaps eightyards around.
1t is rung by means of an enormous
beam tipped with irou--a sort Of batter
ing ram suspended horizontally witt
ropes.
For two cents extra one has the right
70 experiment with it. I harness my
self to tho pulling straps, circle il
formed around me and children Iun up
Even two or three young girls come be
hind mo to take hold, bothering me
great deal, pulling the wrong way hal
tho time, bursting into fits of laughter
The united strength of the three i
almost equal to the power of three goot
kittens.
Meanwhile the battcriag ram begin'
to yield. Gradually it begins to swing
Boom! booml 4 sound awful, cavern.
Gus, and prolonged into mighty orches
, trail vibrations which must be heart
through the whole of the sacred city.